Start up guide

Introduction

Sven Co-op is a co-operative based game based around Valve Software's Half-Life. In this game players must work together against computer controlled enemies and solve puzzles as a team.

It is ideal that you are at least familiar with Half-Life and its controls, and it is recommended that you have completed Half-Life's hazard course.

While Sven Co-op is similar to Half-Life with similar weapons, monsters, and characters, the difficulty has been increased to suit team play.

Sven Co-op's levels are set as missions and are generally separate from each other. Many missions span several maps and some are collected together in a series. The aim of most levels is to reach the end or to achieve an objective -- obtaining a high score is not essential to beat a level, its just part of the fun.

Once completed Sven Co-op will appear in your Steam library. Simply double-click it to start.

Before playing you should set your game options. To do simply select Options from the title screen, then go through the tabs until you're happy. Be sure to check out what the controls are.

Once you're ready click Find servers to find a game server to play on.

The players

Your team mates in Sven Co-op (other players attempting the same mission) will commonly look similar to the figure on the right, though there are many character models to choose from. All players have exactly the same abilities as you, and can fight just as hard.

It is essential that you co-operate with your team mates, as most Sven Co-op levels are a lot harder than the original Half-Life missions with stronger enemies and more combat. You may also need to work with your team mates to solve puzzles or to activate certain buttons.

Communication with others helps ensure success, so before you play check your key setting for the Chat Message command (default Y) - better yet, if you have a microphone handy, use the control options menu to set a key for Use Voice Communication and hold the key in game to talk to team mates. Remember to use voice communication in respect of other players hearing!

You cannot hurt or kill your team mates. Consider any attempt to do so as a waste of ammunition.

Some maps require a player to be boosted up to a higher ledge. This is where one player will crouch down by the higher platform allowing another player to jump on top to reach the higher area. It helps if players are kind and offer to boost others when required.

To help with boosting, some maps enable a new feature called auto climbing. This is done by jumping against a wall of a higher area, and depending on the height of the area, you can boost yourself up on top of it.

Some players will have icons beside them on the score board. This denotes players who are donors or members of the Sven Co-op team as follows:

Donor ($5+) with electric crowbar extra.

Donor ($8+) with electric crowbar and gold Uzi extras.

Donor ($20+) with electric crowbar and gold Uzi extras.

Game contributor / internal tester.

Game artist (maps, models, sounds, etc)

Game developer / co-ordinator.

On the far right of the score board you may find players with the server administrator icon , which means this person helps run and maintain the game server you're playing on. They are your first point of contact if you are having any trouble while playing on their game server. This icon may be tinted gold to signify that the person owns the game server.

The monsters

Stopping you from achieving your objectives are the computer controlled monsters (AI enemies). These appear in greater numbers than players and are a lot smarter than they were the original Half-Life, with new tactics and abilities. In most cases, monsters are hostile and should be killed as soon as possible. Occasionally however, you will meet friendly (player allied) monsters, who can follow you and attack your enemies (more on that later).

Sometimes these monsters may be similar to generic Half-Life monsters, but in other cases they may be stronger, faster or have new attacks. When playing a new map, you can never be certain of what you might find yourself up against.

The allies

Not all computer controlled monsters are out to kill you -- some monsters will work with you against hostile monsters. To identify these allies, use the in game Friend or Foe system.

Simply point your cross hairs at a monster then information will show up in the bottom-left corner of your screen. If the monster is going to attack you the information will show up red. If it is green the monster is an ally and will help you. Real players will show up in blue. The Friend or Foe system also provides useful information about a monster or player's health and name.

Certain maps may have disabled this feature. Typically this is enabled, though a map author can control this feature for their map.

The weapons / equipment

Upon respawning or joining the game players are normally given a preset range of equipment and ammo. The type and amount varies between maps. It is also possible to pick up new weapons, ammo, and equipment in a map. The weapons you can pick up are generally better than your starting equipment and you should keep an eye out for them.

Players have the ability to share weapons and ammo with team mates using the drop weapon/ammo keys definable in the control options, so make sure to share in difficult scenarios to help with your chances for survival.

In many maps equipment is stored at or near the spawn location. If you find yourself running low on ammo, you may wish to backtrack to your starting location in order to restock.

Sven Co-op features weapon replacement technology, allowing each map to include its own unique weapons (WW2-era weapons in AfrikaKorps, for example). These weapons will usually work in a similar way to the default weapons, but may deal out drastically different amounts of damage.